THE COUNTY FAIR. 
311 
eat all sorts of things ; just now they are frequently mischievous 
in the maize-fields. They are good mimics, when trained, and a 
little given to thieving, like the magpie. We do not quarrel with 
them, hoAvever, for they are one of the few birds that pass the 
winter in our woods : at least, some of their flocks remain here, 
(hough others probably go off toward the coast. 
Friday, 2dth. — Great change in the weather. Chilly, pinching 
day. The county fair of the Agricultural Society is now going 
on in the village, which is thronged with wagons and chilly- 
looking people. Three or four thousand persons, men, women, and 
children, sometimes attend these fairs ; to-day the village is thought 
more crowded than it has been any time this year ; neither the 
circus, nor menagerie, nor election, has collected so many people 
as the Fair. 
The cattle-show is said to be respectable ; the ploughing match 
and speech were also pronounced creditable to the occasion. 
Within doors there is the usual exhibition of farm produce and 
manufactures. The first department consists of butter, cheese, 
maple sugar, honey, a noble pumpkin, about five feet in circum- 
ference ; some very fine potatoes, of the Carter and pink-eye va- 
rieties, looking as though there were no potato-disease in the 
world ; some carrots and turnips also. Apples were the only 
fruit exhibited. Some of the butter and cheese was pronounced 
very good ; and both the maple sugar and honey were excellent. 
Altogether, however, this part of the show was meagre ; assuredly 
we might do much more than has yet been done in this county, 
with our vegetables and fruits. And a little more attention to the 
arrangement of the few objects of this kind exhibited at the Fair, 
is desirable ; people take great pains in arranging a room for a 
